Semi-Autonomous, Reliable, Safe Recovery of the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV) in Various Sea States.

To improve the at sea recovery of the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle (RMMV), the Advanced Optical Systems (AOS) has teamed with Maritime Applied Physics Corporation (MAPC) to deliver a solution employing passive optical sensors capable of detecting 6DoF position with accuracies surpassing the human eye. The sensors are a key component of the proposed Autonomous Vehicle Recovery System (AVRS) that will provide rapid position and rate information and/or commands to ship control systems in response to motion between the RMMV and the capture spine. The AOS team"s solution will also provide control messages to the Twin Boom Extendable Crane (TBEC) and the Remote Operator Panel (ROP). The added controls will generate position and rate messages for use by the TBEC control system to simultaneously manipulate up to eleven tag-lines attached to the recovery capture spine and RMMV. Removing the inherent human latencies from the current system and implementing controls of the ROP improves recovery by decreasing the time needed to align the capture spine with the RMMV receiver. Recovery of the RMMV is safer for personnel and equipment, therefore ship missions are not delayed due to long recovery sea details.